We checked out of our Siem Reap hotel and waited in reception for a pick up, to get to the bus station. It wasn't far from the hotel to the bus station, but the lift was free, and it saved us getting hot and sweaty before sitting on a bus for a few hours. The minibus came after half an hour of waiting, and took us to a slightly bigger bus at the bus station.

The bus journey passed uneventfully, and it took nearly four hours to reach Battambang . We’d ended up opting for the bus over a boat journey on the Tonlé Sap for reasons of safety, money, ease and time. Which was a shame, because the boat journey to Battambang was touted as one of the most scenic in all of Cambodia. This made us all the more determined to make the most of our afternoon in Battambang, as we didn’t have long in the place.

On arrival, we walked a few blocks north to our hotel, buying our onward bus tickets on the way. Battambang is a small town, with most sights in easy walking distance. We happened to have picked a hotel near the only vegetarian place in the town. After checking in, we headed straight there, and had a delicious and super cheap lunch. Their large dumplings were the equivalent of 25 pence in British money, and the people were friendly. We headed back to the hotel to cool off. The hotel was actually very nice. It had been a long time since we’d had a budget room where everything functioned as it should – the room was clean, well proportioned, the air conditioning worked and was quiet, the lights functioned, the wifi worked well, it had a bin, a good hot shower, a toilet seat, the hotel and surroundings were quiet, and they even gave us toilet paper and soap and let us check in early . Even the staff were efficient, friendly and nice, and there were no nasty surprises during our stay (like bugs, leaking ceilings, people walking into our room, passports disappearing, electrics shorting out, toilet breaking, surcharges, hassle from staff – all of which we have experienced at one time or another).

Happy with our choice of accommodation, we set off for our afternoon activity – a ride on a bamboo train. Seven kilometres out of town, an otherwise disused French railway line had been turned into a tourist attraction, ferrying passengers about 15 km down the line, through green and lush countryside. This was on a nori; a flat piece of wood, balanced on two metal axles with wheels, and powered by a motorbike engine. This was driven on a single track, meaning that when noris came the other way, the whole platform was simply dismantled and put together again once the nori had passed. Our nori was at the back of about seven noris, meaning we got to see the noris up ahead and also that our driver helped to put the dismantled noris back together again once we had passed . As we were at the back, this meant we got to go super fast to catch back up to the noris in front. Super fast being probably about 20 km an hour. It felt pretty quick as we whipped along. As the track is disused, it is also warped. We could see the bends in the track and gaps between the rails, meaning we got jolted quite a lot as well. It was good fun.

At the far end of the line, we stopped into a small village, hell bent on selling it’s wares to people using the bamboo train. We’d read about this, and opted to immediately stop in somewhere for a drink, to avoid the constant touting. This worked, and we had a chat with a family whilst they occasionally tried to sell us t-shirts, trinkets and other such things we didn’t want. It was all in good spirits, and soon enough we were on our way back down the line again, occasionally with our nori being dismantled on the way. We’d also read about pressure to tip the nori driver, and did so to save him following us around once we returned to Battambang .

Back in Battambang, our remorque driver took us into the centre of the town. We wanted to have a wander around to see the French architecture (there is a French colonial history and continued influence in Cambodia). The remorque driver was called Ping Pong. We aren’t being rude here, his actual name was Ping Pong – at least that’s what he told us, and that’s what was on his business card. We spoke to Ping Pong about our following day’s activities, to negotiate a rate for transport. We wanted to go to Phnom Sampeau, a place with a wat on a hill, a nature cave, Buddhas, a killing cave where the Khmer Rouge used to kill people and dump their bodies, and thousands of bats. It sounded like an interesting destination to us. Ping Pong persuaded us to go to another, what he said was nearby, attraction; a wat called Phnom Banan. Ping Pong assured us that leaving at 3pm would be enough time. We reiterated what we wanted to see at Phnom Sampeau, and opted for 2pm instead.

We said goodbye to Ping Pong until the following day, and went for a wander around Battambang . Here we took in some unimpressive French architecture on the water front by the river, walked past the museum and down to the governor’s place. This was a grand, gated building, with young men playing football outside in varying degrees of undress, including one chap wearing one flip flop. We walked back up through the centre of town, bought some memory cards for the camera, passed a couple of Buddhist temples, saw the disused railway station, and stopped into a place for dinner. It wasn’t great food for the price, though the setting was pleasant.

We headed back to the nice hotel for the evening, passing markets on the way and enjoying the atmosphere, but not the dust.

On Sunday 6th, we had a pleasant morning in, got a lovely brunch from the vegetarian place a few doors away, and met Ping Pong at 2pm. We headed off to Phnom Banan along the dusty roads. It got so bad that Ping Pong stopped and bought us all face masks to wear . He also provided us with some literature on the history of Cambodia, and gave us a booklet on one of our other destinations in Cambodia. So far, so good. On the way, Ping Pong stopped so that we could see some bats hanging from a tree near the road. They were sizeable and looked like fox faced bats. We continued, passing green scenery and small villages on the way. It took quite a while to reach Phnom Banan. Here, we stopped, purchased a ticket, and climbed up a lot of large steps to reach the buildings at the top of the hill. The buildings were Angkor-esque, though in a bad state of repair. The Lonely Planet told us that there were good views from the top. There weren’t, due to all the pesky beautiful trees in the way. In one corner, we could see across the flat ground to another hill, with a building on top. Using the camera’s zoom, we realised this was Phnom Sampeau we were looking at. We headed back down the giant steps to get Ping Pong, so we could be on our way to what we really wanted to do.

What we hadn’t realised, was that there was no road between Phnom Banan and Phnom Sampeau, meaning that we had to go all the way back to Battambang before heading back out to Phnom Sampeau. Despite us telling Ping Pong we were worried about time, and again reiterating what we wanted to do in Phnom Sampeau, he still stopped into a vineyard 'in case we wanted to buy wine’. We didn’t, we just wanted to get on with our activities .

By the time we reached Phnom Sampeau, it was late. Ping Pong stopped at the bottom of the hill, and we were immediately beset by people on moto-dups (motorbikes that will take passengers riding pillion) and the drivers claimed that it was really far to the top, that it would take two hours to walk (two hours!!!), the only way to see all of the sights before it got dark was to take a moto-dup, etc. etc. etc. We thought this was no better than being taken to a gem shop in Agra. Being forced to take additional transport because our driver persuaded us to do an activity we weren’t that keen for, gave us too little time to everything, and told us driving only took half as long as it actually did… well, we weren’t happy. We didn’t take the additional transport and instead stomped off up the hill’s many steps, to try and see as much as we could in the time we had.

It took us somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes to reach the top (note: not two hours) . Here, we found a wat, Buddha statues and golden painted stupas. We rushed off to see the nature cave; a large cave with hanging creepers and some statues. After more steps and monkey-spotting, we were at the top of the Killing Cave. We went inside to find a golden reclining Buddha, next to a glass case with the remains of some of the Khmer Rouge’s victims. These people were killed, and their bodies were thrown into the cave via a hole in the top. The place was eerily quiet. It was hard to believe such atrocities took place there, despite the evidence in front of our eyes. We walked up to see if we could find the hole at the top of the cave, and quickly abandoned the plan when we couldn’t find it quickly and we ran out of path (we always have safety in mind, and here, landmines were a genuine consideration).

Finally, we walked back down the hill to see the last attraction –bats. At the entrance to another large cave at the front of the hill, we could see thousands of bats swarming. As dusk approached, they emerged from the cave, streaming out and down along the road in pretty patterns. This display lasted for half an hour, such were the quantity of bats in the cave (save the bats!). It was pretty spectacular and we were glad to have seen the beginning of it.

We had managed to see all of the main attractions we’d gone for, but had to rush everything and didn’t have time for other exploration . There was, for example, another cave we could have gone to, a Buddha’s head we could have seen, artillery guns pointed at another hill in the distance, and another killing cave according to a young man who offered to take us there, for a fee. All in all, the lack of time was frustrating, but the sights in Phnom Sampeau were worth the trip.

Ping Pong dropped us off in the centre of Battambang and we had another fairly rubbish dinner. We hurried back to our hotel, picking up drinks on the way, and Skyped a good friend, Tim. We had a lovely hour long chat whilst drinking beer and cider (excitingly, Somerset cider, the first Jayna had drunk since leaving the UK) and Tim ate a pasty. Tim was jealous of us drinking at what was 1pm UK time, and we were jealous of the pasty. Mmmm, pasties…

Ken then managed to Skype his folks, and we had another hour long chat with them, which was also delightful. After a good catch up on all sorts of topics, we were pretty done in, and had yet to pack. We decided to leave that for the following morning in the end, and went to bed to try to get some decent rest for the following day.

Next stop – Phnom Penh!